Bob Shaye's Mea Culpa Too Little Too Late

I’m told that tomorrow, on the day that Rush Hour 3 opens, Bob Shaye publicly pledges to make changes in the way New Line Cinema runs its business. It’s done via Los Angeles Times‘ Patrick Goldstein who just six months ago embarrassingly planted a big wet sloppy kiss in print on the mogul last March right before the release of Shaye’s piss-poor directorial effort The Last Mimsy which went on to bomb. (So did The New York Times‘ Sharon Waxman.) Now, Goldstein finally catches up with my reporting on what a disaster New Line has been. In my opinion, the Lord Of The Rant’s mea culpa is years too late. When a Hollywood studio is failing, as New Line has been, the first to get fired is always the head of marketing. But we know that this fish stinks from its 68-year-old head. If only Shaye cared as much about parent company Time Warner shareholders as he does his own press. If that were the case, he’d stop badmouthing directors who make a mint for the studio, and he’d open up the Lord Of the Ringsaccounting for that run-of-the-mill audit that resulted in a lawsuit, and he’d hire Peter Jackson to direct The Hobbit because it would be a guaranteed hit, and he’d stop setting new salary highs for undeserving actors like Chris Tucker, and so on. So I still say, lop off the head of New Line and let fresh air into the place.